Tribal Elders lend support to Blood Chief

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The dispute between Chief Harley Frank and the Blood Tribe Council is still unresolved, more than a month after the conflict became public knowledge. Nor do efforts by tribal Elders seem able to help.

In the latest move to settle the conflict, a small group of the tribe's most respected Elders, including Hereditary Chief Jim Shot Both Sides, met at the reserve's seniors centre Friday, April 16. On their agenda was discussion of a proposed disbanding of current form of government and a partial return to an earlier practice.

According to a member of the tribe who asked to remain anonymous, the Elders hope to force the entire current council to resign, to be replaced by the six remaining members of the tribe's lifetime council, who governed the reserve in the mid-sixties.

Under the Elders' proposal, Harley Frank would remain as Chief, with a mandate to continue his efforts to improve the economic, social and emotional chaos the tribe is now experiencing.

Though it's unlikely the Elders' proposal will be accepted, by either the Council or the Department of Indian Affairs, it does reconfirm the support Frank is receiving from most of the reserve's older members.

Jane Day Chief, an Elder and spiritual advisor to the powerful Buffalo Women's Society, has also lent support to Frank. But while she commended him for paying his lawyer fees out of his own pocket, she chided him for going to outsiders for help in handling his problem.

Day Chief also sent a letter to noted Calgary lawyer Chris Evans, informing him the tribe wouldn't pay any more legal bills. Evans has been hired by the council to handle its dispute with Frank. He is being paid for his services from Tribal funds, as is the tribe's regular lawyer, Eugene Creighton.

Frank fired Creighton a month ago, claiming the chief traditionally has final say on matters of importance to the tribe, but Council says his actions aren't binding. Day Chief's letter is also not likely to be considered official.

While outside lawyers are making money on the dispute, the tribe is increasing its already considerable deficit. The reserve is already anywhere from $2.4 to $4.27 million

in the red, depending on which figures are used. And Council is reputed to have spent another $48,000 on five day's stay in Calgary for in-camera meetings, shortly after the dispute started.

The reserve is currently governed by a chief and council, both elected for two year terms. But it has also had government imposed life-time chiefs and counsellors. In fact, the lifetime appointments were in effect so long, that many people came to think of them as traditional.

The Blood's true traditional method of government was the appointment through consensus of band chiefs, where the bands were separate hunting camps or extended families. When the bands got together, one of the chiefs was recognized as chief of the whole tribe.

A group of about 400 Blood tribe members is also working at getting a similar system re-instated on the reserve today. The Mokh-e-saun Band is working at separating from the main body of the tribe and starting their own government.

Keith Chiefmoon, one of the leaders of the Mokh-e-saun, says his group still hopes to break away from the main body of the reserve, but he supports the efforts of the Chief.

"Council is still trying to cover up all the mistakes that have been made on the reserve over the years. But Harley wants to expose them, so people can make moves to get things back on track," Chiefmoon says.

"We support Harley's efforts on an intern basis, because of his agenda to end the corruption. But we still think the only long-term solution is to scrap the entire system that's been imposed on us by the government and go back to our real traditional ways."